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Friday, 1 November 2013

No matter you are a site owner or theme developer, you must require different devices to test your WordPress site. It would be excellent to have different varieties of devices for testing. However, if you don’t have then emulators are helpful. In this post, we are going to provide you different alternatives for setting up emulators for iOS and Android.

One of the daunting tasks for WordPress developers it is to test WP sites on different platforms. Getting a site that looks the same in every platform like IE6 is a bit difficult. Nowadays, businesses also want their site looks excellent tablets and smartphones. No doubt, responsive website helps to deal with every platform, but before launching or upgrading a site, it is must to test on basic platforms to make sure its effectiveness.

It would be nice to be able to keep an up-to-date library of cool gadgets to be able to test on but not only is this expensive it would probably mean that we’d never get any work done. There are many different types of tools available for testing different platforms. Moreover, it won’t hit productivity as well.

iOS Simulation For Testing iOS Devices

It is advisable to use Apple’s own iOS Simulator app for testing a site on the iOS devices. a site on the iOS devices is part of XCode, Apple's "integrated development environment…for developing software for OS X and iOS".

The simulator is a separate application that can be easily dragged to the dock and runs as needed without requiring starting XCode first every time. If you want to get XCode, you have to signing into an Apple Developer ID. Go to Downloads for Apple Developers for downloading XCode and write down ‘xcode’ and select an appropriate version for your running OS X. after downloading, follow below given steps to instal Xcode.

Open a Finder Window and click on ‘Application’ option.

Press Right-click on XCode and click on ‘Show Package Contents’ available in the context menu

After that, see iOS Simulator listed and drag it to the Dock for easy assessment

While opening the application, it will start as the previous device you simulated or iPhone you used first

WordPress developer can easily change mobile device by clicking on the Hardware menu item and rotate it through same menus or by shortcut keys

Click on the Hardware menu item to check WP site and enter your URL in the location bar.

Android Simulation On OSX / Windows

It is simple to access the Android Simulator, if it is insignificantly more complicated process to accessing the iOS Simulator but, is valuable effort. Now, we are going to install the Android SDK that available for different platforms like MS Windows and OS X. follow below given instruction for installing MS Windows and OS X:

First of all, download the Android SK

Run the installer on windows and unzip the download on a Mac

Now, go to installed / unzipped folder and click on Tools > Android. Now, you will see a command prompt and the Android SDK Manager application will open

After that, check the Android 4.3 folder and then, Install (x) Packages (It will take some time)

Once installation process get completed, you have to set up virtual devices to simulate by click on Tools > Manage AVDs that is available at the SDK Manager menu

Create your own or click on Device Definitions and then, choose a device and click on Create AVD and press OK. Now, you will see your device listed in the List of existing Android Virtual Devices

Now, you have to highlight your device and press on ‘Start’ option. Ensure to determine the scale of display real size and click on ‘Launch’ option

Other Option:

BrowserStack, a web-based browser testing, is other option to test your website, if you don’t want to install the SDKs. One of the best things about this is it doesn’t installation for testing external websites. Developers can check a huge range of devices and platforms, adding browsers and desktop operating systems as well.

Conclusion:

Confused!! What option is best? It is up to you whether you go for installing the SDKs or BrowserStack. Adopting BrowserStack allows to test through one interface, including various desktop operating systems and browsers. So, if you are developing Ecommerce Website for Mobile Phones or any other site in WP, check out our option of testing your website.